Isabella crossed her arms, scowling all of her frustrations away at the wall. She kicked the wall softly, ignoring the world around her. She kept festering her anger. Her twin brother jogged up next to her, leaning against the wall. "Bella, come on." The nine-year-old pleaded. "You can't stay mad at Papa forever." He let out sigh, and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Come on. Let's go play cops and prisoners!"
"Only 'cause I'm bored." She finally agreed, pushing herself away from the wall. She skipped after Rafe, giggling as she chased him through the precinct. She squealed as she bumped into a detective.
"Whoa—why don't you slow down there, entiende?" Nick laughed, ruffling Bella's hair.
"Sorry." She smiled sheepishly. "Is Zara here too?"
"Yeah, she's in the playroom. Stay out of the interrogation rooms. Entiende?" Nick raised a brow, and Bella nodded her head. She quickly ran off after her brother, grabbing him towards the direction of the playroom.
They blasted through the door, making Zara jump. "Come on Zara! Let's play." Zara grinned, jumping to her feet and following the twins out.
"What are we going to play though?" Zara asked, fingering her braid. She was a year younger than the twins, but the three of them had been inseparable this summer.
Bella grinned, wrapping her arm around Zara's shoulders before looking over at Rafe. "We are going to play cops and prisoners!" A worry struck Zara's face but she agreed, smiling as they ran towards the interrogation rooms. They weren't going to go in them, so they weren't breaking any rules.
88888888888888888
"Olivia." Rafael Barba closed the door behind him, straightening his tie. "What is it?"
"We finally caught him." She sighed, running her hands through her hair.
"I apologize, I'm not following. You finally caught who?"
"James Fisher."
"The jump rope rapist?" Barba finally sat down, but he furrowed his brows. "How did you catch him?"
"He was a suspect in a case in Maryland and his DNA hit CODIS. They escorted him back to New York. They don't have the money to keep him, so we are finishing their investigation."
"Where is he now?"
"He's in the investigation room."
"Let's find out everything he's been doing since then. Take another look at the case files, make sure there is still viable evidence."
"Okay." Olivia smiled, and Barba stood up and had his hand on the door before he returned her smile. "It's good to have you back Barba."
"It's good to be back."
"You know, if you ever need to talk—we are all here for you."
"Thanks Liv."
"How are the twins doing?" Olivia was now behind Barba, her hand on his shoulder.
"They are doing better. I think it really helped that I took a couple of months to help them settle in, but they're doing better. The twins stopped crying out for their mother recently, and are getting to be their normal selves."
"Your children are beautiful, I'm glad I finally got to meet them."
"Thank you." Barba sighed, drawing his hands over his face. He glanced up at Olivia and just sighed. "I love having them with me, I just feel guilty knowing it took their mother's death for this to happen. I only saw them once a month or so, when Nina would come in to the city. She never hated me for doing my job, or made me feel guilty when I couldn't see the kids. She just understood and never held it against me."
"Well, I know that those kids love you. They're welcome here anytime we can help."
"I'm just glad Nick has custody over Zara now. The twins love her."
Olivia laughed, taking a drink. "I think you mean Zara worships them."
"Well…hopefully they don't influence her. The twins can be quite mischievous, but they obey so I'm not terribly worried." Barba smiled and winked. "Thank you Olivia."
"Anytime." Olivia sat back down, with her glasses on before going through the casefiles of James Fisher.
Barba smiled, straightening his tie once more when he finally looked up and saw Nick Amaro walking over to him. "Hey Barba. How's it going?"
"It's going." He smiled. "You?"
"Same. Listen, my mother is throwing Zara a birthday party on Saturday. Why don't you and twins come on over? We'll grill out and have some beers. Plus, I won't have to deal with all my mother's friends…" Nick scratched his neck, pleading.
"Alright, alright. We'll be there. Well, the twins will be there. I'm not sure where Fisher's case will put us by then though."
"Sounds good to me." Nick pat Barba's shoulder. "Want take them to the park for a bite? I'm hungry and Fin and Rollins are going to head over in a bit too."
"Sure. I'll go round the twins up right now."
"Great. Can you grab Zara too for me?"
"Yeah. Do you know where they are?"
"The twins ran up to Zara about an hour ago. You know what, I'll come with you. Zara was upset I had to come in today." Nick grabbed his jacket from the back of his chair, catching up with him.
8888888888888888888888
"Let's go in here!" Bella exclaimed. She pushed Rafe and Zara in before closing the door quickly after her. She gave a dramatic breath, wiping her forehead. "That was close!" She exclaimed.
"Yeah it was." Rafe mumbled. "The bad guys almost found us!" He smiled.
"We are safe from the bad guys. We have shields of honor!" Zara punched her imaginary shield in the air.
"Hello." The three jumped and all clustered in the corner. There stood a tall man sitting at the table, gently tapping the table with his finger. His chestnut hair was slick, his face smooth.
"Um…hello." Bella answered meekly. Rafe protectively grabbed her, his arm shielding her between him and Zara.
"My name is Jimmy. What about yours?" He smiled, not moving.
"We're not supposed to talk to strangers." Zara whimpered, grabbing onto Rafe's shirt. "Let's get out of here." They tried for the door and groaned when they realized the door was locked.
"The detectives locked the door in case I decided to flee. However, I'm innocent so there shouldn't have been a need."
Bella gulped, looking to Zara and Rafe. They both had fear painted on their face too. Curiosity though finally got the best of Bella when she blurted, "What do they think you're guilty of?"
Jimmy just laughed, and slowly rose from the chair.
The kids scrambled behind the door when it opened, and froze as Fin didn't notice them. "Who the hell you talking to, Fisher?"
Jimmy smirked, not saying a word.
"You're going to jail, Fisher. You're done." Fin threw down the manila folder on the table. "You're not going to rape anymore kids, you sick freak. What the hell are you smiling at?"
"Your detective skills." The smile dropped off Jimmy's face as he motioned towards the three kids plastered against the wall. Fin's jaw dropped, a second passed before the shock washed away and the anger took its place. "Out. Now." He pointed sharply towards the door. "I'll be back." He growled at Fisher, pushing the kids out the door.
Fin had the twins by arm, knowing Zara would follow without trouble. The twins however, would likely run rather than face their father. They were stupid in that regards, Fin thought. Running always made it monumentally worse. He sat the kids down roughly next to his desk, glaring at the three of them. "If you move a muscle, I'm going to take a turn on your asses before handing you over to your daddies. Got me?"
"Yes sir." The three shamefully muttered.
"Wait, Fin?" Bella piped up. Fin turned and saw the worry and fear on her face and wanted to scoop her up in a hug, but ignored it. Instead, he just stared hard at her. "We got into the game, and didn't realize what we were doing. I can say that we truly are sorry." She dropped her head in guilt, and Fin sighed.
"Well, you know better." Fin replied.
"Fin, please don't tell our papa and Nick." Rafe gulped, gaging whether his request would anger Fin more. Instead, Fin just chuckled and sat down at his desk, clicking away at the keyboard.
"Please don't." Zara added, hoping that maybe Fin would feel bad for them.
"You lost your minds if you think I'm going to hide this. One, Nick would kill me. Two, your father is a powerful lawyer who could probably find ways to send my ass to jail. So no, I'm not lying for you. Sit there, and think about what you did wrong and I don't want to hear anymore out of you. Got it?"
"Got it." The three sighed.